Great idea! I'm already envisioning a board of individual pedals which are all discrete stages - couple of gain stages, couple of eqs, some clipping diodes... Kinda build your own pedal in a single pedal board.
I really love how you cater to visual learners and people who don't have much (if any) electrical training. I also love how you think that through-mount diodes are "really tiny." Surface Mount components almost made me give up on electronics repair.
Thank you it means a lot to hear that 😁 I want the channel to grow and go from beginner stuff and up to more advanced stuff so anyone who wants to can follow along and grow with it 😊 I didn't use to think that they were small but then I tried filming them and it's hard to get them on camera 😆
If you want to make it a bit cheaper you don't really need a 3PDT foot switch. A simple SPST foot switch will do (could even use a bedside lamp switch to be uber-cheap. But don't stomp on it too hard though!) Just wire the diode pair between the signal lugs of the jack sockets and a parallel path through the switch between the same. When the switch is off, the only path for the signal is through the diodes. When it's on, the diodes are shorted, and therefore totally bypassed. The other thing you could do if you stick with the 3PDT switch is replace that little wire with a resistor or preset pot, That way you can volume match the clipped and un-clipped signal. Of course there will still be an insertion loss, but this can be compensated for with more gain downstream.
I’ve been messing with passive diode pedals recently. If you put a buffered pedal in front of it you don’t have as much of a volume drop and it’s less muddy and fuzzy with the buffer. More crunch. And if you run a boost into it you can get a dynamic drive sound.
@@zurowetz yesterday I did some more experimenting. I made a pedal that’s just a volume knob and also a pair of germanium diodes in parallel going from signal to ground. You put the pedal in your amps effects loop then you can crank the amp’s preamp volume and then lower the pedal’s volume to the desired level. It’s a similar idea as the JHS Little Black Amp Box Passive Amp Attenuator but with the addition of clipping diodes. I’d like to try this again with a rotary switch with various diodes then I can hear the different characteristics of the diodes in this application.
One of my favourite new channels. I've been building gor a while now, but I still enjoy what you bring to the table. One minor correction though, at 5.15, you add a small jumper wire to the footswitch. You state that it doesn't need to have plastic insulation, this is true, however, you are using metal bodied jacks, ground connection is made to the body of the enclosure, your wire touches the body, it would short all signal to ground, if it wasn't covered in plastic. Really sorry, because your content is excellent. Can you edit your voice out of that part?
thank you for the love and help I appreciate it I removed the bit about the wire it was unnecessary to have it there, you can do it with a leg of a resistor or something but I didn't explain that you have to make sure it doesn't touch anything else if you gonna do it so thank you for spotting it 👍😉
I'm really confused about what this does to the signal. I expected it to be connected to the ground to drain excessive voltage and clipping the signal from the top (and bottom for negative voltages) as usual. In this setup, it seems to clip the middle section of the signal. If the voltage is low, no current can flow and it remains at 0 on the output until the forward voltage of the diode is reached and then it should reproduce everything above more or less faithfully minus the forward voltage.
I was looking at the same thing and that's exactly what happens here. Just simulated it and as you described, having the diodes in series (in to out) will just cut out +/-forward voltage around zero. Commonly clipping diodes are placed against ground and then it'll actually "clip" or limit the amplitude. Not sure what this series diode method should be called, but sounds interesting nevertheless.
nice. can you think of a diode that offers a 'cleanish' clipping so it's almost like a passive compressor? trying to think of something subtle as an always on effect
The hotter The pickup The more it will be clipping so experiment with what guitar you are using and what diode clips in a way you like but it will never be like a compressor that is not what is happening
Or just add the diodes and a mini toggle to any or all your existing pedals like every other pedal builder on earth has been doing for the last 15 years!!
